Morning coffee

[djfordmanjack]

you're right Hugh, it is the combination of cars and music, which makes it great. nothing better than rolling around in a 57 Ford while listening to some good music !
Sorry to hear that your son got out of music because he could not find the right band, totally understand that. music needs a lot of understanding and friendship. Are there any you tube videos available of your sons band ?

[djfordmanjack]

BTW love the Dorseys. have this one on a real 78. this thing is hot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NIVgREWqzY

[mustang6984]

you're right Hugh, it is the combination of cars and music, which makes it great. nothing better than rolling around in a 57 Ford while listening to some good music !
Sorry to hear that your son got out of music because he could not find the right band, totally understand that. music needs a lot of understanding and friendship. Are there any you tube videos available of your sons band ?

Not that I am aware of. BUT...there is one that I know of from a gig they did I think before he was in the band...look for Fon Morcus drummer in Yahoo. There is one of him playing Timpani Drums doing the solo for 2001 A Space Odyssey. while watching it...keep in mind he was about 72 years old at the time!

[mustang6984]

BTW love the Dorseys. have this one on a real 78. this thing is hot

When my uncle finished college after WWII he had an opportunity to play with one of the
Dorsey Bros bands...but he turned it down as kid #1 was in the oven, and he figured he needed to be responsible and go to work. He was a Tenor Sax player. worked his way through college playing gigs and fronting for the Big Bands when ever they came to town as their opening acts.
What a shot...and I always wondered if he regretted missing out on it.

[djfordmanjack]

unfortunately the Dorseys passed away 56/57 I believe.  I think they must have had so much stress over the war years and their busy schedule. they were not that old. Tommy and Jimmy were just SO good.
I believe there are many great musicians who didn't make it big in the time. Today we can find a lot on youtube and old records, sadly this is too late for those guys, but I like to think of how records are made for eternity and unknown artist will still be referred to in future. I personally really cherish the less known artist on records. they gave it all.

btw, on to something completely different, yet so good. Willie is the man ! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcqqyL-Y6Go

[mustang6984]

unfortunately the Dorseys passed away 56/57 I believe.  I think they must have had so much stress over the war years and their busy schedule. they were not that old. Tommy and Jimmy were just SO good.
I believe there are many great musicians who didn't make it big in the time. Today we can find a lot on youtube and old records, sadly this is too late for those guys, but I like to think of how records are made for eternity and unknown artist will still be referred to in future. I personally really cherish the less known artist on records. they gave it all.

btw, on to something completely different, yet so good. Willie is the man ! 

He was good! Liked it. Can't believe that 36 people thumbed it down. Bunch of idiots!

[djfordmanjack]

I don't understand why anybody could ever dislike such ability of playing bass. probably they are still trying to slap bass theirselves...
here is something totally different, yet so good. Si Cranstoun from the UK, contemporary artist, and he is reknown to be the second best to Jackie Wilson ( except for Jackies own son)

this is just sweet dance music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jRHsNtK4dQ

[djfordmanjack]

btw this is a blast from the past. most awesome Doowop rocker . this is great to dance to, the crowd will go wild even in 2020.
The Cues-Why !


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBDqMDZnfxE

[hiball3985]

I love watching the videos of unknown artist, so many extremely talented people that never get recognized. The music industry is all about the $$$$$ and who gets promoted. I would spend Sundays at the Merry-Go-Round in Griffith Park were free concerts were held by bands hoping to get a shot at making it and few did, one was Los Lobos that I remember. There were a few more but my memory of those days are fading. I worked in the sound business from 1966 to 1986.

[djfordmanjack]

So true ! remember Los Lobos ! looking back today, back in the 1980s there were still quite a lot of bands that had the RocknRoll sound or at least tried to emulate the sound of the 50s. I sure got a lot of inspiration as a kid from bands like Los Lobos.
My first contact with RnR I clearly remember, probably 5 or 6 yrs old in the 1970s was watching Elvis in the Acapulco movie and listening to Bill Haley's See you later alligator on one of my fathers tapes. I was in a choir back then and practicing traditional flute playing and I couldn't figure out what the heck they were doing. that infamous 'backbeat' rhythm of the Comets has burnt into my mind every since.
20 yrs later I was lucky enough to meet ALL of the Comets band members in this video in person. Marshall Lytle, Franny Beecher ( former guitar player with Benny Goodman), Johnny Grande, Joe D Ambrosi, Dick Richards. even my 57 Ford was involved in that memory as I just parked the Courier, when by coincidence the Comets were just arriving from their hotel and carrying their trademark checkered suits on their shoulders. Of course a quick conversation started on the car which was later continued after the concert. I still have all their autographs, sadly I believe they have all passed since. sometimes I just can't believe my own stories and memories with cars and music, especially the connection with 57 Fords and RocknRoll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nydPNZJZxNw

What was your profession Jim ? does your cut off date of 1986 also concur with the event of electronic or different style music ?

[hiball3985]

My carrier working at JBL and JBL/Harmon-Kardon ended on a sour note ( pun intended  ) But previous to that it was a great place to work.
I'll note that during my early years 1966-74 I drove two 57 Fords.
Long story and I'll try to condense it. I started as a shipping/receiving clerk waiting for an opening in the machine shop. When that finally happened I worked my way up the ladder to leadman then supervisor, the lowest rung on the management ladder, basically the guy that everything gets blamed on. At that time we were just producing home entertainment equipment for the people with fat wallets, So when I got my first set of JBL speakers and a Crown amp I was king of sound in my small group of friends, everyone brought their music to my house to listen to and party. Rock music was starting to really boom and many musicians were interest in our speakers for their sound systems. I didn't fit the management mold of the white shirt and tie management people but I fit in with the rock groups better when they came.We had many of the top bands come for tours of the facility. I got to meet many of them, I got a European version of an album from the Beatles and a T-shirt from Joe Walsh, but mostly it was just a thank you. At that time we were still just a small company. We had to expand quickly when Sansui came with 2 million in cash and placed a huge order. The assembly area supervisor wasn't cutting it and I was transferred to that department to replace him. We got the presidents award for US export that year.
The original owner retired and sold the company to Harmon-Kardon. A lot of new management came with it, and I still didn't fit the mold  I was lucky that I was still able to remain myself, I got a pass because of the work I did and all the changes I made over the years to improve methods and designs. We also were building speakers for for people like Fender. Sid Harmon was a great guy to work for but was then appointed to a government position, I think it was Secretary of Commerce and had to liquidate his private holdings, company was sold to a huge company and that started the down hill spiral and soon after that I left. So I'll end this with a picture of me and Sid Harmon receiving one many small awards I got over the years for you laughing pleasure 

[djfordmanjack]

VERY interesting story Jim ! thank you. This is just EXACTLY how I would picture the management type of person...haha....that is an incredibly cool pic ! You look more like George Harrison than George Martin !

Do you think that the changes in sound business/corporate/management which you describe, also made it possible for Asian products to nearly completely take over the Western market or was it just sign of the times/innovation?
I had JBL speakers in the 57 Courier, it was probably a build of the 1970s or 80s and it came right out of Cali. So they could have very well been from your days at JBL.

[hiball3985]

I think it was a combination of all things you mentioned, just a sign of the times.
Thats interesting! One of the guys that worked there had Courier, wouldn't that be strange if it was the same one. It was black and he planned on putting an FE in it, don't know if that ever happened.
I forgot I had two 8" JBL speakers in my 57 and a 4 track tape deck that I got for payment for towing a 59 Ranchero 50 miles.

[mustang6984]

They gave awards to long-haired hippies back then? LOL!!! I can see what you mean about not fitting in with the white collar management types! Probably scared them all1 LOL!!!
JBL's were gold back in the day. I had my share of them. Good stuff. Not sure what is in my tower speakers for my speaker and amp I have for events. Bought it used from a friend...and have never opened it up.

[djfordmanjack]

talking about Rock songs, and this isn't even a Rock song. but it's one of my alltime favorties of the era. heard Ten Years After live in '95. Man they rocked, love when they get going at 3:05 !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTMEDzTESjc